SYMPOSIUM: China Art Academy, Hangzhou, China

The title of this symposium Envisioning the Future of Contemporary Art From Different 'Global' Positions sets up a daunting proposition: the subject is huge and certainly demands a commensurate vision. To date, the evolution of contemporary Chinese art has been dogged by small, complex issues of both global and local origin that have exerted disproportionate impacts. Where it takes time for sleeping dogs to be let lie completely, what does the impact of these issues indicate for the future?

To look at the future does first require an examination of the past. In terms of China, the past has been clearly divided between “global” and “local”: the situation in one being a catalyst for activities and responses in the other. Here again, to look to the future demands an analysis of these variant environments. The intersecting, interaction and even repulsion between the “global” and the “local” has been chaotic. As time passes, it will of course diminish in importance. But that is the future, and we have first to consider how the past has resulted in the present climate.

- Karen Smith, Chinese Art Historian, UK

Organized by Zhang Peili (Artist and Director of New Media dept., China Art Academy, Hangzhou), Lorenz Helbling (Founder of ShanghART, Shanghai, China), Laura Zhou (Former Director of ShanghART, Shanghai, China) and Eloisa Haudenschild. All participants toured Zooming into Focus exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum before being transported via bus to Hangzhou's China Art Academy.

Moderated by Hou Hanru (Former Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs, SFAI and Independent Curator) and Pi Li (Independent Curator and Founder, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing) with works shown by Bill Voila (courtesy of Britta Erickson; presented by Eloisa Haudenschild), Wang Gongxin, Qiu Zhijie, Zhang Peili, and Yang Fudong.

Presenters included:

- Pi Li (Independent Curator and Founder, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing)
http://minshengart.com/en/category/person-list/detail!Pi-Li
Presentation: Chinese Contemporary Video Art

- Fan Di'an (Director, National Art Museum of China)
http://sites.asiasociety.org/uschinaforum/fan-dian/
Presentation: Meeting and Traffic

- Hans Ulrich Obrist (Curator, Paris)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Ulrich_Obrist
Presentation: The Museum of the Future - Art, Architecture, Science and Technology

- Mami Kataoka (Senior Curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo & International Associate Curator, Hayward Gallery, London)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mami_Kataoka
Presentation: New Media as New Experience